Ghost Brothers of Darkland County Tour - Anyone going?

[haterobics]

Posted: 11/8/14 at 6:12pm

Anyone going (ever saw previously) the Ghost Brothers of Darkland County? It's the show created by Stephen King, John Mellencamp and T. Bone Burnett.

They are doing a tour in November/December starring Gina Gershon and Billy Burke, and it's coming to the beacon Theater in NYC on November 24.

But the tour is making a bunch of stops: http://www.ghostbrothersofdarklandcounty.com/events/

I have a decent ticket for the Beacon, but not quite sure what I'm signed on to...

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/8/14 at 6:16pm

I saw the full production in Atlanta and am really glad I did. Basically Shuler Hensley can do no wrong. I saw him in Silence! a few months later.

[gleek4114]

Posted: 11/8/14 at 6:26pm

I almost saw the full production. I was performing that night in a different show. I am still bummed I missed it. Emily Skinner was in the cast.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/8/14 at 6:27pm

The concept album is interesting but I wish they'd given us a proper cast album.

[haterobics]

Posted: 11/8/14 at 10:04pm

In a recent interview, King seems to think this could still land on Broadway, which is why they are probably waiting?

[JenM9]

Posted: 11/9/14 at 2:51am

I'm going in a couple of weeks when it passes through Providence. I'm a big fan of Stephen King's books so I'm excited to see his take on a musical.

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 11/9/14 at 1:16pm

I saw the original production in Atlanta 2nd row. Taking my wife to see it in Detroit, Nov 26. 1st row lower balcony. It will be interesting to see what has changed and if the show will be as effective from farther away. The devil was amazing from 10 ft away.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/9/14 at 1:46pm

I think it's a whole different animal. From the Indy Star:

When the "Ghost Brothers" tour visits Clowes Hall on Oct. 18, attendees will experience a show that resembles an old-school radio play. Conventional acting and choreography are parts of the package, but only as accents - an approach that fits Mellencamp's description of "Ghost Brothers" as a "play with music" rather than a musical.

[Pammylicious]

Posted: 11/18/14 at 9:30am

Just landed tickets for Monday's performance. Running time? Anything else to report? Very curious about this. TIA

[haterobics]

Posted: 11/24/14 at 1:48pm

Curious to see this at the Beacon tonight...

Even more curious is Stephen King's recent statement about bringing the show to Broadway: "We looked at shows like The Lion King, how big they were, and said, 'Is this what we want?' After all John and I have been through on this show, if a bunch of angels said, 'We want to put this on Broadway with special effects and a big band,' we would probably say, 'F-- off.' No cat suits."

Seems like he has a pretty narrow view of what goes on on Broadway. Then again, he churns out 3 novels a year it seems. I've been working on one forever, but I know Broadway inside out, so he may have his priorities much better aligned than me, heh.

[Broadway Joe]

Posted: 11/24/14 at 6:45pm

I just bought a fantastic seat for next to nothing. I'm excited because King is my favorite writer.

[haterobics]

Posted: 11/24/14 at 11:07pm

Ugh, no matter what it cost you overpaid...

What a long, boring night... It was like a good Mellencamp concept album that was expanded into a pretty boring paint-by-numbers stage play. Definitely less people there for the second act than act one around me. Yet King and Mellencamp filled up the house.

I'm not sure if any songs pushed the narrative forward, but most didn't. Like they introduced the one character is the devil, and then he sings a whole song about how he's bad, and all stuff where you're like, "Yeah, I get what the devil is..."

Some other bad lines I remember:
- The one character has a flask named Vanna White
- One character is described as having legs that go all the way from the Outbacks of Australia up to the jungle of Africa.
- Another character was shut down with "Save your **** for the ****house."

Crazy how bad it is for how long they have worked on it and staged it previously.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 11/24/14 at 11:30pm

What about scenic elements? tech elements?

[haterobics]

Posted: 11/24/14 at 11:42pm

But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

The band is onstage, and the cast sit in a semi-circle of chairs with the action performed pretty much in the center the whole time. So, not much scenic stuff aside from a gun and a few spare props... mainly just lighting cues, etc.

[seeseveryshow2]

Posted: 11/25/14 at 1:24am

I agree. It is dreck! No redeeming value whatsoever. Can't imagine what great work they think they've created here.

Hundreds if not more than a thousand seats were comps. The lines to pick up the free tickets were unusually long!

I, along with many others, beat a path to the exit doors at intermission.

A wasted evening.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/3/14 at 3:08pm

I found the story itself somewhat compelling (except for the far-fetched plot twist that didn't really make sense) and I enjoyed some of the songs. But that was about it. I think King is a terrific storyteller, but a terrible playwright. His attempt at "folksy" dialogue just comes across as cliched and corny. The staging and direction is un-inventive and too static. As mentioned before, there are a number of songs that don't really drive any action. The whole devil character is completely erroneous to the plot and doesn't work as a staging device. Most of the cast were strong and doing the best with the awful staging they were given, but Gina Gershon should NOT SING. It was fun to see June Carter Cash's daughter in a bit role, though. The band sounded great, but the sound mixing and actors' mics were terrible). The "radio play" staging isn't fully realized and it really doesn't work at all. There was nothing to justify its use for this particular show. I'm glad I saw it, but I'm afraid I can't really recommend it.

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 12/3/14 at 7:42pm

The tour is nothing like the original.

The tour is done with no sets or props. It is done like a group of friends sitting around a campfire and acting out a ghost story. They removed a lot of dialog and replaced it with narration from either a narrator that plays in the band or from the devil who is both a character in the show and narrator. This shortened the show and without staging was necessary to give the audience the location and the big clock over the set that told the audience the year and time.

I found the band better than the original as it was up high and behind the sets for the original. Gina Gershon does not fill Emily Skinner's shoes in the role of the mother.

The audience was mostly John Melloncamp fans and not used to seeing theater so, the concert style setting suited them fine from talking to a few neighbors.

The use of the devil was much more clever in the original. In the tour, he walks and tells what his going to do. The original had the couple actually jumping off a cliff about 12 ft above the stage into a hole in the stage and repeated 3 maybe 4 times with little Joe telling a different version of the story each time and the couple acting it out each time. The final scene where the brother kills his brother and girlfriend is total different the devil sets off a chain reaction that could have been done in this production which was completely unexpected and left the entire audience gasping with it pure genius choreography. I wanted to rewind and see what I just witnessed. The timing was pure magic. Kind of a Rube Goldberg of death with snap fast reactions with one action causing 3 deaths in domino fashion. I cannot believe they left that out.


Updated On: 12/3/14 at 07:42 PM